


The Fear All Four

by MistBorn_SprenDeath



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 06:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17523344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistBorn_SprenDeath/pseuds/MistBorn_SprenDeath
Summary: Time Loop stories are always fascinating because there is so much potential and possibility. But it's normally locked away in one person, the only one to remember that time keeps resetting.Julia of Altea~Lost in an Age Long Past Away756310.43 Beta~Lost in the Command Structure of the Galran EmpireVeronica McClain~Lost in her search for her dead brotherKeith Kogane~Just trying not to die every time the week restartsSo, are you intrigued?





	1. ZI'GROL'X

 

Very few Alteans kew how to make a good stew, Julia (luckily) was one of those few. The small hearth crackled lightly as the stew bubbled. FIlling the air with warmth and flavor,, the small pot made the entire room seem less empty. Julia hadn’t seen another Altean in qunitents, long before her ship had crashed. Almost burning herself as she strayed too close, Julia quickly pulled back. Breathing out a sigh, she scooted to the wall and laid her head on her knees.

It was a miracle her food supplies hadn’t run out yet, but every week the box of feed was once again filled to the brim. Curiously, Julia had never seen another living creature on the planet and her ship was shrapnel so it couldn’t replenish any depleted supplies. She didn’t know who or why, but she was grateful nonetheless.

A soft beep drew her attention to a small Altean communications unit. It always sat quietly on the cave floor until the fifth day when it would play a battle conversation between two men. Reaching over to grab the device, Julia flicked the on the panel several times before pressing the button. Slowly the lights on the device strobed for a moment before they steadily illuminated the small corner of the cave.

“-before their ships have the opening they need!”

Usually, she didn’t turn the communications unit on quick enough to hear the pilots’ leader, but she got lucky this time.

“Got it.”

The kid’s name was Keith, she knew from later on in the recording, he was nervous. As far as she understood, Keith was the pilot of the ship and the sole passenger was his grunts of pain. Julia knew that she had never heard of an Altean fighter pilot by the name of Keith, the closest she knew was Kei’ash. That didn’t help, Kei’ash was a female cargo pilot from the main fleet. Julia had liked the young ALtean and her family, they were nothing like any other Altean Julia had ever met.

Keith painted over the recording as a distant explosion sounded. “J-Just i-ingore i-it.” He was in pain, and yet was still fighting desperately.

Wondering what Altean battle he had fought in, Julia racked her memory the best she could. But the problem was that the Alteans rarely fought, so the few battles that had occurred were so distant that very few records mentioned them at all. The desperation in Keith’s voice made it seem as if it were a final stand with the odds stacked against them.

Keith hissed again in pain. Slowly exhaling, Julia closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. No matter how many times she heard the recording, she still felt pain not being able to help the young pilot. Assist him, somehow. It made her think of her younger brother who would be home in Altea by now. She remembered the nights when he would come to her bed crying.

The communications unit emitted a loud cry of pain and then an explosion. The device faded into its recharge cycle.

Julia sighed and set the unit down on the ground beside ehr. The fire didn’t seem so warm anymore, and her hunger ebbed. “It can wait,” she whispered softly to herself. If Prince could see her now, listening to the recording of a dead pilot, on the verge of tears. Her bitter laugh echoed across the cold cavern walls. If his word had meant anything, she wouldn’t be stuck on this quiznaking planet of ice and rock. No Altean rescue ship had ever come.

Gripping her head in her hands, Julia forced herself to breathe deeply. “I’m pathetic.” She choked out. In her head, Alfor’s voice chided her with a soft warmth that he tried to keep hidden. _Be careful saying “I am”, Lia._ Then Prince’s deeper and louder voice, _A great leader knows when to say “I am” and “I am not”. At least, that’s what my father says._ She scoffed but felt comforted thinking of her old friends.

She and Alfor had grown up with the Prince on Altea before she had become a fighter pilot, one of the only few. Being friends with the Prince and the best architect/engineer had its benefits. Looking back down at the communications unit, she sighed. Keith...he was dead. She couldn’t change that. However, she could try to fix the communicator. Hanging around with Alfor while he was talking about plans for a castle ship had helped her understand Altean technology better, so she should be able to fix the device. As she softly picked it up and turned it over, her thoughts wandered to her friends.

The queen and king were expecting a child, a son. Alfor had joked that he thought they should name the child Marshen, but the Prince (bless his marks) had taken serious offense. Walking in on the two Altean men having a Yalmor battle, Julia had promptly burst into laughter. Julia paused and looked up at the rocky ceiling. She wanted to see them all again. Alfor, the Prince, the king and queen, their little baby boy, and of course her little brother.

As her thoughts drifted back to Alfor she busied herself with trying to remember how to open the panel on the back of the device. “I think he said something about the access panel being tricky to open. I think it was that the seal was thicker?”

The small device sat neatly in her palm, technology that could span across galaxies. To just think that over 7 guarts back there was a large building dedicated to sending communications from planet to planet. Slowly turning the blue device, looking for an easier opening, Julia didn’t see the warning light strobing angrily.

Sparking once, blinking and burning her, Julia dropped it. Cracking and shattering as it made contact with the cave floor, the communications unit turned dark. “No. N-N-N-N-No!” Scrambling to pick it up, Julia kicked a large pile of pebbles into the fire, scattering the embers in a loud wave of sparking ash. The blue unit was covered in webs of cracked glass and dented metal.

Altean technology was delicate and only to be used in the direst of circumstances, at least, that’s how it was built before Alfor and Prince started to make changes.

Now her only chance to contact Altea was in pieces, on the floor of a single cave on an ice planet with no other life.  The tears trembled in the corners of her eyes as she shivered. "No." Looking down at her hands through watery eyes, she watched the burns from the electric shock darken. Her head fell back against the cave wall as the tears tumbled down her cheeks.

Pale yellow, almost white, hair caught on the wall behind her and stuck to her face. With a frustrated growl, she sat up and grabbed a section of her hair. Part of the communications unit 's screen had fallen onto the cave floor and shattered into shards. Grabbing the largest piece, which was really only as long as her smallest finger, Julisa hacked her hair off. Frustration and anger staved off the pain for a moment as she trembled in anger.

Blood dripped down her clenched palm, and she dropped the piece of glass with a hiss. If Julia hadn't been so absorbed in the frustration and pain, she might have seen her Altean markings flare red and then black. Her clean hand came to her mouth as she began to shake. Hiccuping and sobbing, the Altean woman felt what was left of her serenity, vanish.

 

[•~•/-|-\•~•]

 

Julia woke up with a start, the movement sending icy pebbles cascading in every direction. Chopped and uneven ends of hair hugged the sides of her face, held in place by dried tears and blood. Stiffly sitting up, she felt the world sway almost imperceptibly but it was enough to make her feel sick. The world seemed melancholy and silent. Her right hand refused to relax from its half-open position, dried blood and cold stone digging into the raw flesh. Slowly and tiredly, she surveyed the cave around her.

The embers that had been cooking her stew now lay strew across the cave, sitting like black ice on an Altean road. The pot lay on its side as the remaining drops slid slowly down the decline of the cave until it sat in a stale puddle in the farthest corner. The food container sat on its side, and Julia remembered faintly having bumped into it. And there, beside the entrance, was the cryo-pod. It still looked pristine and was the only clean Altean part left.

Coming to the conclusion that she had fainted or cried herself to sleep, Julia groaned. She would need to get herself cleaned before she could fix the mess she'd made. Hobbling over to the cryo-pod had been easier in her head, Julia found as she leaned against the ice cold wall. The positioning of her sleep and reopened wounds caused far more pain then they should have. 

After a good long while, she rested her head against the glass of the cryo-pod, dirtying it.  _At this point, I don't care if it never lets me wake up. I just don't want to live in this nightmare_. The pod recognized her cleaner hand and beeped in affirmation. The glass started to glow softly, and the control panel hummed softly. Then promptly shut down.

"gggggggaaaAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Anger and frustration clouded her mind and before she could think better of it, she kicked the pod as hard as she could with her advanced Altean strength. The sheet of glass shattered into a thousand little hexagonal shards, showering her in glittering daggers. "Zi'grol'x!" She cursed. A large foot-sized dent buried itself in the pod's exterior. Julia's cry of frustration echoed for several ticks in the empty cave. 

_Why is the universe **against** me?!_

"Quiznacking Universe! Quiznacking pod! Quiznacking ship! Quiznacking ALTEA!"

Alfor hadn't come for her.

Prince and his parents were snug in their castle on Altea, while she  ** _rotted away_** on this forsaken planet of ice. 

No one in her fleet had come for her. Come to rescue her. Try to find her.

Anger and resentment bubbled like a furious acid rain storm. 

Her own kind had  _abandoned_ her.

When she got off this planet, she would make them all  _pay_.

"I swear, if I ever see Prince's face again-" Her angry shoutings became sharp cursings. 

Once again, if Julia had been watching, she would have seen her Altean marks black glow fracturing into blood red light captured in daggers of glass.

 

/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

 

Julia stumbled out of the cryo-pod, long hair brushing against her shoulders. There, on the ground, was an Altean communications unit in pristine condition. The floor was immaculate except for a large pile of pebbles in a collected corner. No snuffed out embers or shoot streaked the floor. Looking down at her hands and arms, Julia saw that it was as if the damage had never been done. Like it had never even happened.

The communications unit beeped and she scrambled over to it, nearly tripping over herself. Flicking the power button, the device flared to life. "We need to form Voltron before their ships get the opening we need!" 

_Voltron? What's Voltron?_

That voice had been Keith's commanding officer. "Understood, Shiro."

_The dialogue is changing. It's **changing**!_

Keith huffed and directed his next words to another pilot in his fleet. "Sharp, keep an eye out for any stragglers."

_Why are they fighting? And why do they have **Altean** technology? My communications unit shouldn't be able to hack any foreign systems!_

Another voice that Julia hadn't heard before responded with a snort. "I always do, Mullet."

"Quiznack. This isn't a recording. This is a  _live_ battle."


	2. Command Ship 75

Facing the commander with a fixed glare, 756310.43 BETA stood at attention in the front of OME’TAT Squadron with the other three kits on either side of the newest additions to the squad, stood two druids. “756310.43 BETA, step forward.” The commander’s sharp command seemed to pierce through his contempt for the druids. Obediently, he stood before Commander Co’tat with a fist crossed over his chest. He knew what was expected of him, he’d already done this 13 times. “Vrepit Sa,” The Commander intoned stiffly. 

756310.43 BETA echoed the motto as the squadron’s whispers wisped passed his ears. “Vrepit Sa.” 

Watching him,  Commander Co’tat’s eyes seemed to be searching and calculating, almost as if he was looking for something. “You have been…” Those eyes flickered, “Promoted, as the only kit to complete Zarkon 58 takedown, to specialist class.” 

756310.43 BETA’s tail stiffened in surprise. 

‘ _ Specialist class?! _ ’ 

Normally he was just promoted to foot soldier position. The specialist class was under direct druid influence. “Beta Squad 7.” He barely held in a gasp. The druids drew pupils from Beta Squad, and the rest were never seen again. Only the strongest survived. Only the strongest deserved to survive. 

But 756310.43 BETA supposed he  _ was _ getting stronger every reset. 

A galran sergeant that he had never seen before in any of the restarts, stepped up to the commander’s side. “756310.43 BETA, I am Specialist Aret. Seeing as you are so gifted in flying, Beta Squad 7 - Core 32 now claims your life in the name and service of the empire.” Commander Aret was tall, taller than even the commander or 153.4 OME’TAT, and his voice echoed farther than science should have allowed. 

Specialist Aret held out a staff. It was a druid staff. Half in shock, half in fear, 756310.43 BETA took the staff. He had seen the claiming of a specialist recruit only once before, when….when Kie’asha was still alive. 

Thrusting the staff forward, he held it parallel to the ground. Specialist Aret smiled, a cruel and evil smile, “Vrepit Sa!” 

The thundering of voices tore into his mind, all screaming one thing. “VREPIT SA! VREPIT SA!” 756310.43 BETA gasped, arm trembling and head pounding. WIthout looking he could tell that his tail was spasming in mind-numbing pain. 

“V-V-” 

Shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, he spun the staff until it was held vertical to the ground, sharp end pointed down. 

“VRE-EPIT SA!”

His throat felt raw and his head threatened to explode. Slamming the staff against the ground, he felt it shatter. Quintessence exploded in a sudden supernova, spraying outward in a starburst of light. It was pure energy. A force meant to be followed not restrained. 

It was . . .  **_pure primal_ ** . 

756310.43 BETA’s chest felt suddenly hollow, empty. Like a black hole, the quintessence was sucked into his empty chest, never filling the emptiness. Sounds buzzing all around him, it was almost like he could distinguish every wave of sound, every wave of light. 

**ALPHA** . 

This was  **ALPHA** . 

Without warning, as if a light switch from earth was connected to his soul, it went out.  _ He died _ .

 

•\\-/•\\-/•

 

756310.43 BETA sat up in his bunk, mind buzzing with confusion. 

' _ Why did the loop restart so early? _ ’ 

The 27th loop had ended before the 5th day, making this the 28th loop. What had changed? 

‘ _ Specialist Aret. He’s the only thing that really changed. But...was there something that I did to warrant that change? I don’t remember doing anything different. _ ’ 

Had he done something different during the 27th loop?

The loud knocking came, startling him out of his thoughts. “E-Enter!” 756310.43 BETA already knew who was at the door, and the news that they brought. As the door was thrown open, it occurred to him that the metal door was unlike any of the other entrances on the ship. It was distinctly human. He snapped out of it when he saw her again. 

Kie’asha’s body fell to the floor with an echoing thud. Even though the contact lasted for a moment, it seemed to last longer. The sound had rung in his ears 27 times already. The soldier left without a word, without any acknowledgment. Indignation and anger flared in his chest but his sister’s breath staggered on the floor, distracting him.

Her breath stuttering, Kie’asha didn’t move, just like every loop before this one. 

‘ _ Her number would have been 756311.95 OME’TAT, not the fat Galran footsoldier. _ ’ 

\Most could tell the two were related, with matching white hair and light lavender skin. Unlike him, she didn’t have a tail nor bright yellow eyes. Kie’asha’s eyes had always shined with green irises on a glittering white backdrop. Now they were closed. 

A soft but quick knock made him jump. No one else was supposed to knock at his door. Not after Kie’asha. The door opene, as if the intruder thought the dorm room was empty at this hour. 756310.40 BETA felt a surge of irritation, and was about to begin yelling at the person on the other side. 

But then he saw the red ‘V’ on white. “Hello?” The red paladin peered in, but didn’t see him, only zeroing in on Kie’asha’s body lying prone on the ground.

“Coran?” He peered back into the hallway before he quietly closed the door behind him. “Coran, there’s a girl. She-She doesn’t look good.” 756310.43 BETA didn’t move, barely breathed. 

‘ _ Why is Voltron here? How- _ ’ 

Over the paladin’s comms another voice spoke. “Ok number  **xxx** , just calm down. Is she still breathing?” The Galra would never be so careless as to have their comm units loud enough for anyone to hear. “Lance, pull out. Don’t touch anything. It could be a trap.” It was another voice over their comms. Watching the red paladin with narrowed eyes, 756310.43 BETA was prepared to pounce if the human even touched Kie’asha. 

The paladin scoffed and his Bayard vanished with a bright flash. “Mullet, you don’t  _ know _ if it’s a trap.” He had been sure that the flash of light would have given him away, but the paladin still hadn’t seen him yet. 

“But I  _ did _ know about the explosion.” 756310.43 BETA’s ears twitched in curiosity. 

‘ _ Explosion? Is he talking about the one that finally finished the battle? _ ’ 

The empire’s broadcast was always cut off by the loop reseating, so he couldn’t be sure.“...Fine. You win this time, Mullet, but I don’t know how you knew that was going to happen.” Tail stiffening, something occurred to the galran kit. 

‘ _ Whoever Mullet is, he knows about the reset. _ ’ 

Ice pooled in his veins, making his heart speed up. “If you two are done, Lance, bring her back to the castle-I...I mean, bring her to camp. Our pod should be able to help her. And maybe she can help us in return.”

A flare of alarm surged through his veins, like adrenaline. Faintly, he longed for  **ALPHA** , that magnificent and overwhelming power, but he shook it off quickly. 

As the paladin moved forward, toward his sister, 756310.43 BETA hissed loudly. “Don’t get any closer to her.” 

The red paladin spun, bayard appearing in his hands. “Lance, are there more Galra?!” 

The galran boy laughed humorlessly, “Are there more Galra?” Ha! Try a full empire of Galra, Paladin.” He sneered, inching closer to Kie’asha and still keeping an eye on the paladin. “And there aren’t very many Voltrons, now are there?”

The sudden cries of a fight broke out and 756310.43 BETA’s adrenaline vanished. That was the fight that would kill her. Torn between hatred and fear, he teetered for a moment before he backed away. 

Confused, the red paladin also took a step back. 

“Wha-”

“Take her with you.”

As if understanding flickered in his eyes, the red paladin nodded. “I’ll be sure she gets out of here alive.”

756310.43 BETA scoffed. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, paladin. She at least has a chance if you take her away. If she stays…” 

The door burst open with a loud bang. An unconscious galran body fell to the floor. Another ‘V’ on white, but this time it was yellow. “Lance! We need-” The yellow paladin cut himself off and aimed his large cannon at 756310.43 BETA. “GALRA!” The galran boy shivered with irritation, and an itch to take out the pest, but the red paladin quickly stepped in. 

“No, Hunk! We need to get this girl back to camp. She’s in bad shape-” The yellow paladin quickly interrupted his friend. “OH No, no, no, no, no! How do you know it’s not a trap Lance?! You don’t know if she has a tracker on her! You don’t-!”

A loud explosion shook the ship. “I don’t have time for this! If you’re not going to take my sister, then leave!” 756310.43 BETA hissed in anger as his tail lashed violently, ears still focused on the nearing fight. 

Unholstering his blaster, 756310.43 BETA hurried into the hallway. He threw one last glance over his shoulder at the two paladins. “If you are going to help her, then you have to leave  _ now _ .” Several emotions flickered across their bodies, their body language shifting silently in a complex battle. “But this….doesn’t change anything.” 756310.43 BETA raced down the hall toward the battle. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thank you so much for reading this! I honestly rewrote this chapter 4+ times, so there has been a lot of revisions and sloppy drafts made. Comment down below to tell me what you thought or what you want to see! This is the second character I introduced in the story's summary. 756310.43 BETA of the Galran Empire. What do you think?
> 
> I'd like to thank you again for reading and I wish you a Terrific Tuesday! :)
> 
> ~Misty


	3. Galaxy Garrison, Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ringing sounded like a strange language, ancient and distant, and it made Veronica's head pound painfully. 
> 
> 'What's-what's going on?'
> 
> 'I think I finally managed to make contact with you.'

Veronica McClain had been very certain of her sanity until the time loops started. But she didn't realize it was a time loop, all she knew was that she was repeating days. Not just deja vu, but actually reliving the same exact moments over and over again.

She searched every source she could get her hands on. When she couldn't find anything there, she searched every file that the public didn't have ~~legal~~ access to. 

"Nada. Nada. Nada." 

All around her personal desk there was stacks of paper and more paper. The Garrison had taken a page out of Area 51's book from back in early 1900 (all the way through 2056) and only had their important government information on outdated technology that hackers couldn't even get access to. Half of it was paper, but the small screen attached to the wall also had several USB sticks plugged in (after she had built her own modifications, of course, there wasn't any USB ports on the student use computers.)

Her roommate wasn't going to be back for another hour, but Veronica glanced nervously at the door again as she opened a folder titled, "Smith Theory". The folder name was intentionally misleading, and the only reason it had drawn her attention was because of a news headline from a piece of news clipping that she had saved for several years (it was on the opposite side of the comics with 7 Penguin and Zero Trip, which is why she had even saved it). 

**_Genius Theorist of America, Joul Smith is DEAD_ **

_Two days ago, 7:32 in the morning, Joul Smith died of unidentified causes. Garrison reports have not come in yet, but the world mourns the loss of the brilliant mind who wrote the 10 Theories of the Conceptualization of Time as well as _ _Time's Course, A Smith Theory_ _. In response to the tragedy, Smith's family has publicly announced that the funeral service will be a private service on Garrison grounds and no further information will be available for public viewing. In light of their head scientist's death, the Garrison is shutting down all recruitment offices worldwide._

When she was 8 years old, Veronica hadn't understood why her papa was so angry when the news speakers relayed the news for the blind residents in the community [He had thrown the dining chair off the porch with tears in her eyes], but she understood now. Her dad was on course to become a Garrison pilot, it would have increased his salary and then the treatment for Abuelo could be paid without worrying about having food every night.

That was the first night Lance had come into her room crying. He had heard their padres fighting in the room over, and he was scared. Lance and his little 5-year-old brain had imagined the scenario of a divorce because they were so angry. A girl in his class had her parents go through a divorce, and Lance had found her crying on the playground the day before. When his classmate had told him what was wrong, Lance became paranoid about their padres.

Veronica sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. She knew Lance was alive. Or, at least, that he was alive when the recording was made - there hadn't been any radio contact in several months since Dr Holt had came back. But with the same day repeating over and over again, Veronica had almost forgotten about her place in the preparation for Earth to enter the universe’s playing field. But she couldn’t get it done if the day never moved forward, if she never got past dinner. 

The “Smith Theory” folder was just a digital copy of the original - seeing as she didn’t want anyone to notice that someone was searching through their files (she had even gone through the trouble to find gloves so that they couldn’t trace her fingerprints) - and only held 7 double-sided half sheets and a folded poster. The poster had a graphite sketch of a diagram of sorts which made her head hurt so Veronica set it aside for a moment. She had to scan all the physical pages in order to get a digital copy, but none of her devices had scanning technology integrated with its main drives, so several of the words were blurred beyond recognition. From the text that wasn’t blurred Veronica was able to draw a general idea on what Dr. Smith’s theory was about.

Dr. Smith's theory was based off of the theoretical concept of ever living being quintessential connection to everything else - including time. In order for a disruption in time to exists there would have to be a reason for the disruption to exist, an interference in the flow of quintessence would have to be caused. The correction of such a massive disruption would take a lot of power and would need to be corrected several times. 

The example Dr. Smith had used was a molecule, or a planet, forced out of its natural orbit by some traumatic event. In order to correct the planet's course, the planet will have to have its course changed several times before it returns to its proper place. The disturbance and correction of the orbit would both be caused by an outside force that is related to the planet and its orbit.

In short, it was confusing and giving Veronica a headache.

"Hey, Veronica?"

Her roommate's voice from the other side of the door made her jump violently. Glancing at her clock, Veronica swore. She thought she had another half hour before Terra came back to the dorm room.

"Veronica? Are you going to unlock the door? I know you're in there. I can hear your Spanish muttering from several meters away,  _with_ an iron Garrison door separating us."

Panicking, Veronica swept all her papers from her desk and into the opaque tub that sat next to it on the ground. "O-One moment, Terra!" She grabbed the usb as well as her homemade adapter and tossed it into the bin as well before she closed the lid and locked it.  _I forgot that Terra comes back early!_

By the time Veronica made it to the door, Terra had begun singing loudly and obnoxiously in the hall. "Do you know, my pal from Tilow? He makes me smile, and has great style! OH, HOW HE MAKES MY HEART-" Yanking the ginger into their room before she could continue, Veronica quickly locked the door behind her roomate.

Terra giggled, tossing her bag onto her bunk before plopping down onto the ground. "Wow, what's got your sock in a bun, McClain? You've been acting kind of shifty recently! Locking the door all the time, _making illegal usb adapters, illegally surfing through Garrison data, and things of the like._ " 

Veronica nearly fell over. "Wh-what did you just say?!"  _I have to be hallucinating. She couldn't have found out! She's never found out before!_

Terra looked annoyed now, dropping her happy act. "You've been shifty! Locking the door, staying up late, and hiding all your stuff! If I didn't know any better I'd think you were meeting someone in our dorm room!" The look of disgust on the ginger's face made Veronica think of her Tia Linda. "I'm going to be talking to the head of the Student Progress Center tomorrow to see if I can switch rooms and get a  _normal_ roommate who _won't_ get me in trouble with Iverson." Throwing her stuff together, Terra didn't even look at Victoria. "Just because your brother is part of some space team billions of lightyears away doesn't give you a free pass to break all the rules."

Veronica glared at the other girl but didn't say anything in response. The first time Terra had said that the two of them had ended up in Iverson's office. The fifth time, Veronica had wished her farewell with sarcasm, the tenth time she threw the lightswitch off after Terra had left and just contemplated her affect on other people, by now she just shrugged the interaction off. She had more important things to worry about.

When the door closed behind Terra, Veronica sighed. _Even after so many resets_ _I still don't understand girls like her._ Veronica studied plenty of human psychology in her free time, but people like Terra Riviera-Encog still confused her. 

She was letting herself get distracted.  _Dr. Smith proposed that there had to be a shock wave large enough to create such ripples in the universe's quintessence, and in order to fix it there would have to be several corrective pulses to correct the flow of quintessence. Why would that affect me?_   _It doesn't seem to affect others...that I'm aware of_. 

Knowing that there was lots of alien life out in the universe opened her problem to too many possible variables. There had to be a way to determine who else was affected by the looping of time. 

" _ **Cadet McClain! Report to Iverson's Office!**_ "

The crackling announcement over the speakers made Veronica jump, but she quickly recovered. "Yes, Ma'am!"

Iverson would want to talk to her about Terra as well as Dr. Holt's new project which would need another assistant. He would also be talking to her about skipping classes. Veronica always had to try to remember what and what not to say, depending on her answers she would be able to help Dr. Holt or be assigned detention for a month (which she hadn't lived yet, only she had only lived the punishment for five days). 

By the time Veronica made it to Iverson's office she had run and rerun the dialogue she was supposed to use.  _I just hope I can avoid the "Your Brother" speech this time._ Knocking on Iverson's door and pausing for admittance, Veronica didn't anticipate the sight she was greeted with this reset.

Instead of a disappointed Iverson sitting behind his desk of administrative papers, there was an alien. An alien with white hair, sharp elf ears, and glowing green crescents that sat just under her eyes. "Wha-?!" Then the elf vanished with a blink, being replaced by Iverson. Veronica was hit by a wave of dizziness, a found purchase on the wall to keep herself from falling over. "C-Commander?" Feeling dazed, Veronica was sure that something important was happening.

"McClain? Take a seat, I have some questions-" His voice grew louder, "Are you alright?" 

\-------------------------------Veronica.exe has died by result......-------------------------------------

Veronica gasped, sitting up in her bed with her heart thundering in her ears. "¿E-en dónde-?" The contents of her stomach forced themselves out, her gut churning and burning from the sudden reset. 

Faintly, Veronica could hear Terra waking up and panicking, but it was all background noise to the ringing sound in her ear. "Oh my-Veronica! Are you okay?! Do I need to go get the nurse?!" The ringing sounded like a strange language, ancient and distant, and it made Veronica's head pound painfully. 

_What's-what's going on?_

_I think I finally managed to make contact with you_.

\-------------------------------Veronica.exe has died by quintessence overload......-------------------------------------

Veronica moaned, head thrumming dully as she woke up slowly.  _Why does my head hurt so much?_

_That may be my fault. Your human brain isn't accustomed to such a focused stream of quintessence. The overload killed you, causing the reset within a few of your Earth hours...I think. It may have been minutes, I'm not familiar with your Earthian vocabulary. I've only had access to your mind for several movements. Due to time dilation, time passes differently for the two of us._

Feeling more sore than excited, Veronica didn't bother responding. It meant she was correct that others were affected by the reset. Maybe she could figure this out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter (sorry for the really late update) - I really didn't have any idea what Julia's chapter was going to be, or what the direction was supposed to be even though I know several of her interactions with other characters in future scenes (I already have those scenes written). So, it is a little sloppy and a little rushed, but I hope you guys enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! The idea for this story has been many months in the making, and this is the first chapter I have for you guys! Comment down below! Tell me what you're thoughts are, or what you want to see! This is the first character I introduced in the story's summary. Julia of Altea. What do you think of her? 
> 
> Once again, I'd like to thank you SO much for reading this and wish you a Wonderful Wednesday!
> 
> ~Misty


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